Notebook One: Cerebus #25 Part Four & a Schedule

MARGARET LISS:

A few years ago I scanned all of Dave Sim's notebooks. He had filled 36 notebooks during the years he created the monthly Cerebus series, covering issues #20 to 300, plus the other side items -- like the Epic stories, posters and prints, convention speeches etc. A total of 3,281 notebook pages detailing his creative process. I never really got the time to study the notebooks when I had them. Just did a quick look, scanned them in and sent them back to Dave as soon as possible. So this regular column is a chance for me to look through those scans and highlight some of the more interesting pages.

Maybe instead of rewriting this opener every week, I’ll be a bit more efficient with my use of time and have this standard opening . . .though Boss Man saying I'm giving the notebook away for free, I see it as a way of advertising all the good stuff in the notebook, and wouldn't it be easier to have a hard copy to flip through and read at your own leisure? 

Have you got your copy of Albatross One? That is Dave Sim’s name for his first notebook used in the creation of Cerebus. If you want a copy of the notebook – and trust me, as someone who has held the actual Albatross One, it is a pretty close duplicate and looks great – you can check out this post right here. Well not this post. The one at this link. Go check it out, this post will still be here.

Please buy one so boss man stops yelling at me for "giving the store away for free". Perhaps if he sells one or two or all that he has left, he'll finally give me some PTO.

And if you don’t want to buy one, you can wait as I release a couple of pages a week and check them out using the Notebook One tag. But trust me, the notebook is much much nicer then my silly little posts.

Okay, now that is done, on with this week’s Notebook One post.

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We’ve been looking at Dave Sim’s first notebook used in the production of Cerebus. A notebook he called Albatross One as he carried it everywhere and it held him down. So far we’ve seen pages that covered material from Cerebus #20 and we’re up to Cerebus #25. We saw a ‘schedule’ of sorts on page 83 of notebook one, back in Notebook One: Cerebus #23 Part Two & A Schedule. Well, the next page of the notebook continues that schedule:

Notebook #1, page 128

Let’s combine that with the schedule from page 83. The newer items are indented:

• October 23 – 27 (1980) writing
• October 28 29 30 diamondback
• November 1 – 12 #23 drawn
• November 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 Swords finished
• November 25 – 29 write #24
• December 1 – 12 draw #24
• December 13 – 20 write and rough Canuck story
• December 21 – 23, 26 – 29 write #25
• January 2 - 20: draw #25
  • January: Swords #1
  • Jan 5: page one
  • Jan 8: page eight
  • Jan 9 - 11: no work
  • Jan 12: page nine
  • Jan 17: page twenty
  • Jan 18: Cover
  • Jan 25: Canuck story
• January 21 - 26: draw Canuck story
• January 27 - Feb 3: write #26
• February 4 – 16 (1981) draw #26
• February 17 – 23 Portfolio
• February 24 – 28 write #27
• March 1 – 12 draw #27
• March 13 – 23 Portfolio
• March 24 – 31 write #28
• May: Swords #2
• Sept: Swords #3

So 45 pages later Dave was on track. We also get more material for Cerebus #25. On the next page of the notebook at the top of the page we see Dave has #26 written beside X-Women. But we all know that isn’t the direction Cerebus #26 was going to go in.

Notebook #1, page 129

We also get a list of items for pages 10 through 20 on this notebook page. Kind of. We’ve seen numerous pages for Cerebus #25, with only tiny bits of it showing up in the finished comic pages. And it is the same on the above page. The little bits that stand out to me as being used on the final page is Charles X. Claremont being excited about having two apocalypse beasts and the artist chap finding a new theme. Though he still doesn’t use ‘immortal romanticism’. 

And the next page is just a sketch of Charles X. Claremont and a landscape that doesn’t look familiar:

Notebook #1, page 130

Still nothing seen for Cerebus #26 and High Society other than the incorrect X-Women.